Indian bowling coach Bharat Arun described Jasprit Bumrah’s spell of eight overs, three maidens, seven runs and five wickets against West Indies in the second innings of the first Test at Antigua as the “best spell of fast bowling from an Indian in a long time,” after his performance helped India secure a massive 318-run victory.
“Bumrah is a very thinking bowler, he is aware of situations and adjusts himself beautifully to them. The lengths he bowled in the first and second innings were very different, in the second innings he was pitching the ball a lot higher up, and was getting appreciable movement. It was the best spell of fast bowling I have seen from an Indian in a long, long time” he said ahead of second test.
“I look at the bowling as per execution, and I’m not really worried about the outcome. I guess the wickets are the outcome but I’m not looking at them at all, what we (the bowlers) discuss is the execution. So that was exactly what was discussed with Bumrah after the first innings, because he was a trifle short, he didn’t pick up wickets. So in the second innings, the momentary shift in lengths resulted in him having that spell.
While Bumrah clicked in the second innings, it was Ishant Sharma in the first innings who picked up a five wicket haul, and Arun spoke about how the key to prolonged good form for the Indian fast bowlers was the way they looked after their bodies.
“Fast bowling is a strenuous, injury prone activity. I think the key to the form of our fast bowlers over a period of time is how their workloads are being managed, and how they take care of their bodies,” he said.
“I think the five wicket haul for both our frontline seamers (Ishant and Bumrah) will give them confidence, also not forgetting the fact that Shami looked really good each time he was given the ball.
“He (Bumrah) is bowling at 140 clicks consistently, and his action is also not very orthodox. It takes the batsman a second longer to pick up how he is bowling, and the fact that he is so accurate makes him even more potent.”
